Observe how and when your teacher closes his or her lessons and/or activities. How does he or she end each class period? Is there a set routine? If so, describe it. Pay special attention to when you teacher begins to end the class. Does he or she return to the purpose or main idea of the lesson? Does he or she "set up" the homework or the next day's activity? Is the teacher still teaching when the bell rings or are students already poised to leave? Is there some "dead time" at the end of the class period? If so, how much? How do students react to your teacher's closing strategies? Remember that these questions are a guide and that you don't have to answer each one. Be sure you reflect on your observations and describe how you will try to end your classes. What supports for these ideas might you include in your lesson plans?
Observations:
Ms. D's class is set up with an agenda for the day on the board at the begining of class. This allows the students to understand and follow through with each of the topics that must be covered in class each day. This also alerts the students to where they are in class as they move from one topic to another. As the last topic for the class starts it signals the students of the end of the period. Ms. D also frequently reminds classes of the need to reach the last topic on the board for the day and to keep focused and mvoe smoothly through their agenda. During the last topic, today a feild trip and its paperwork going home to parents, she frequently needs to remind students to stay quiet to be able to hear and ask questions about the trip. This is a preperation for the future event, and also their homework as today all they must do is deliver the paperwork to their parents/gaurdians. She also stops talking when others are talking or packing up and making noise, this quickly focuses the students attention back on her. She will also only take questions from students who are quiet, as well as the rest of the class, and raising their hand.
Reflections:
Ms. D almost always needs a little more time, or could use it easily so their is never any lapse of topics to cover at the end of class. The students reactions to the closing topic is usually enthusiastic as she cooses to leave paperwork they may want returned or passed out to last, or observations of their ecocolumns which is also something the students are eager for. They easily focus back on Ms. D when she is silent as they know they will not be able to ask questions if they talk, though outbreaks of side conversations are often due mostly to the excitement of the students for the field trip and the end of the week. I also hope to end classes tieing into the homework or the next days activities. This will help the students understand the relationships between topics and help them transition to them, hopefully. Within my lesson plan I can do this by using an agenda similar to Ms. D's and utilizing transitions in the homework assignments. I can lead into the homework at the end of class which will lead into the next days topic hopefully.
Class Topic: Symbiosis
Grade: 6
Observed by: Mary Ackerman
Observations:
Ms. D's class is set up with an agenda for the day on the board at the begining of class. This allows the students to understand and follow through with each of the topics that must be covered in class each day. This also alerts the students to where they are in class as they move from one topic to another. As the last topic for the class starts it signals the students of the end of the period. Ms. D also frequently reminds classes of the need to reach the last topic on the board for the day and to keep focused and mvoe smoothly through their agenda. During the last topic, today a feild trip and its paperwork going home to parents, she frequently needs to remind students to stay quiet to be able to hear and ask questions about the trip. This is a preperation for the future event, and also their homework as today all they must do is deliver the paperwork to their parents/gaurdians. She also stops talking when others are talking or packing up and making noise, this quickly focuses the students attention back on her. She will also only take questions from students who are quiet, as well as the rest of the class, and raising their hand.Reflections:
Ms. D almost always needs a little more time, or could use it easily so their is never any lapse of topics to cover at the end of class. The students reactions to the closing topic is usually enthusiastic as she cooses to leave paperwork they may want returned or passed out to last, or observations of their ecocolumns which is also something the students are eager for. They easily focus back on Ms. D when she is silent as they know they will not be able to ask questions if they talk, though outbreaks of side conversations are often due mostly to the excitement of the students for the field trip and the end of the week. I also hope to end classes tieing into the homework or the next days activities. This will help the students understand the relationships between topics and help them transition to them, hopefully. Within my lesson plan I can do this by using an agenda similar to Ms. D's and utilizing transitions in the homework assignments. I can lead into the homework at the end of class which will lead into the next days topic hopefully.Class Topic: Symbiosis
Grade: 6
Observed by: Mary Ackerman